Saturday, February 3, 2007

11:34 pm thoughts

We went to my folks house for my nephew's birthday today. I feel like Jeff Foxworthy could do a whole stand up show about my family sometimes. Yes, it is Feb. 3 and my parents STILL have their Christmas lights up. The tree is down but the outside lights and the plastic Santa are still on display. I don't think they light them, please God I hope they don't, but just the same they're hanging. There's also a mattress and box springs on the side of their house. They live out in the county but right on a heavily trafficked road. They have plenty of room in their driveway area for 6-7 cars and yet sometimes they pull right into the yard, parallel to the house. I guess this makes it easier to get into the house since the bushes in front of the porch have all but grown over the sidewalk. Oh, and there's a LOVELY almost 3 foot, painted eagle statue on the front porch. Yep, I'm proud.

What amazes me about my parents and their lifestyle is that I don't understand it. My Dad came from a house where nothing was ever out of place. My Grandma never worked outside the home and kept an immaculate house. My Dad retired from the army where discipline ruled the day, everything had a place, order was necessary, etc. Our house was clean when I was growing up, my Mom worked off and on, but since we were in the army (because it's not just the service member in the army it's the whole family) and moved so much it was hard for her to have one job for a long time. When they retired they bought their first house. You'd think, having lived in government quarters all their married life, that once they bought their very own house they'd take care of it, take pride in it and enjoy fixing it up. Nope.

My house isn't immaculate like my Grandmother's used to be (she's a little too old to take care of all that now, plus smoking God knows how many packs a day in a closed up house tends to make a house nasty) but for the most part, most of the time it's clean. With two kids there's always something that needs picked up etc. but it's not dirty. Same with my brother's house.

Everyone is asleep. I could continue reading my latest Stephen King book, Lisey's Story but I don't feel like reading right now. You'd think with the ridiculous number of channels I could find something to watch on TV, but no. I just finished watching a wedding cake decorating challenge on Food Network. I think if I watched that station enough I might actually like to cook. I love Good Eats and the Iron Chef challenges and anytime they make cakes anywhere. Very fascinating. I think people who decorate cakes really are just artists who use another medium, which happens to be edible.

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